FINALIST: MEMOIR, STORY CIRCLE AWARDS, 2024

FINALIST: NARRATIVE NONFICTION, INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS OF NEW ENGLAND AWARDS, 2024

In the days before Roe v. Wade, an ambitious young journalist, abandoned by her beau, leaves Michigan for a dream job on the city desk of a Rochester, NY newspaper. Burned once, she's eager for love, but as the only 'girl' in the newsroom, she's more concerned about finding allies and making friends. When a new leading man appears, she recognizes a kindred spirit. Soon her bylined stories claim front-page space. However, when she becomes pregnant, she must switch her attention from deadlines to decisions.

With adoption on the horizon, she pushes her man to make a commitment. Sadly, he wants her, but not their daughter. Will Dusky ever find the little girl she longed to raise, and if she does, what will be the fallout from their years apart? In HOLE IN MY HEART, the author uses her skills as a journalist to report on the social history and long-term consequences of family separation.

If you like true stories with strong women narrators, you'll love Lorraine Dusky's timely and heart-rending memoir about motherhood, identity and love. Written and narrated by a leader in the movement to reform adoption practices and the first to come out of the era's closet of shame.